York Indoor Regional 20-01-08

One day shy of a year on from the last York indoor regional - and a change of venue back to the 'old place', Huntington High School. The YORCC - York Off Road Car Club members had laid out one monster of a track in the sports hall. The track featured a multitude of jumps and obstacles which tested the drivers but didn't punish the lesser drivers. Two huge table tops joined together to create a 'beast' of a double jump - most drivers were landing on the top of the second jump but some of the faster drivers were able to 'down slope' the second.

Ben Riley going all 'sky burger' on us with his B44

The largest feature was the huge corner table top jump - a cone on the inside corner prevented any real chance of clearing the top in one smooth jump - though it could still be done, just about!

The day was a busy one, one of the biggest I've seen with 111 drivers - with 12 heats split between 2 and 4WD classes. 4WD has really taken off and the new B44 was very evident here - there were 7 heats of 4WD and 5 of 2WD.

I was racing the latest budget Tamiya racer - the DB01 Durga and had Stu Wood take a little video of it going around the York track - gives an idea of the layout better than the photos.

The grip levels stayed fairly consistent but seemed to drop away in round three - lap times dropping off slightly. The grip levels seemed to come up a little for round four - round-by-round qualifying was used so it didn't matter too much.

4WD A final - Adam Skelding (Edit / HB) was on pole with his Hot Bodies D4, and took an early lead, pulling a small gap on Chris Long (Xfactory X-5) in 2nd. Adam made a small error coming over the mats and Chris took the lead. Adam drove well to close the gap and the two came to the doubles with nothing between them - Adam retook the lead but it wasn't for long as these two swapped position a couple more times. The battle between these two saw them 'caught' by the 3rd and 4th placed cars but Adam held on to win convincingly from Chris Long and Ben Riley.

Finishing Place	Qualified	Name	Result
1	1	Adam Skelding	13/312.93
2	2	Chris Long	13/313.11
3	5	Ben Riley	13/314.73
4	9	Paul Bradby	13/315.03
5	4	James Dixon	13/326.78
6	8	Damian Whittle	12/302.27
7	7	Gregg Williams	12/302.42
8	6	Graham North	12/306.19
9	10	Lee Farrer	12/311.20
10	3	Bruce Thompson	12/316.13

The 2WD A final was won by Richard Lowe (JConcepts) running the B4, with team oOple driver Stu Wood just a second further back in 2nd place also with the B4. Tom Cockerill came in 9 seconds back in third with his Losi XXXCR.

Finishing Place	Qualified	Name	Result
1	1	Richard Lowe	12/300.01
2	2	Stuart Wood	12/301.39
3	4	Tom Cockerill	12/310.86
4	5	Matthew Latham	12/316.05
5	8	Craig Collinson	12/321.72
6	7	Ben Riley	11/294.62
7	3	Arslaan Butt	11/304.01
8	6	Kevin Kitchen	11/307.07
9	10	Gregg Williams	11/307.88
10	9	Mark Redmond	11/309.53


Stuart Wood - 2nd // Richard Lowe - 1st // Tom Cockerill - 3rd	Ben riley - 3rd // Adam Skelding - 1st // Chris Long - 2nd

Well done to Richard Lowe (JConcepts) and Adam Skelding (Edit / HB) for their wins - and thanks to the York club for putting on such an amazing track and well run meeting - even if it did run a little late!

All photos are mine, all mine, and not to be used in commercial purposes without prior permission. Jimmy Storey. rc(at)oople(dot)com.